On Season 7 of Little Women: LA, Tonya Banks and Terra Jole clashed over Terra’s Black Girl Moscato idea for two reasons. The first being that the name of Terra’s wine was shocking and many found it offensive. The second reason was that Tonya was working on her own wine brand and Terra knew it.
Last week on Little Women: LA, Tonya confronted Terra. She made it clear that she wasn’t okay with her friend starting up a new wine brand and gave her friend an ultimatum about it.
Now, Tonya is busy showing off her own new wine creation. Named L’Tonya Renee, the Lifetime star’s first wine is a blend of reds that Tonya says was inspired by her mother.
Tonya Banks’ new red wine blend is made up of 48 percent merlot, 32 percent syrah, and 23 percent zinfandel. Merlot will give L’Tonya Renee a mildly sweet, fruity flavor while the addition of red zinfandel and syrah wines will add body and full flavor to the blend.
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Tonya’s first offering under her new brand was inspired by her mother, who she says loved red wines. That said, Tonya plans to release another blend soon enough. Ironically enough, she told LA Weekly that it will be a Moscato.
“I started off with a sweet blend,” Tonya told LA Weekly reporter Michele Steuven, “I’m going to do a Moscato, too, but wanted to start off with a red first because my mom loved red wine.”
While Terra’s plan was to market her wine to a black audience, it looks like Tonya is really embracing minority vintners in order to create her blends. Through a network of black vintners, Tonya was introduced to Longevity Wines, located in Livermore, California who is producing her red wine blend.
“The wine industry is a very white male-dominated industry,” says Marcia Jones of Urban Connoisseurs. “Selling wine is not that easy. Gallo owns about 300 brands in the retail space. Tanya wanted her wine to be made by an African-American. She is the only celebrity who has chosen an award-winning black winemaker.”
Tanya is revealing her new L’Tonya Renee red wine blend after six months of tasting and testing in order to get it perfect. Described as not too sweet but not too dry either, it looks like the Little Women: LA star got it right.
Little Women: LA airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on Lifetime.